Critérium du Dauphiné 2025 Stage 5

June 12, 2025 It's a tough day to predict what's going to happen because the profile is quite unique. The first 85KM after leaving the start in Saint-Priest, just outside of Lyon, is very flat. The riders head North running parallel with the Saône river before crossing to the West banks and into the town of Crêches-sur-Saône. The climbing begins with a category 4 climb then three category 3 climbs, the last, the Côte des Quatre Vents, tops out 27KM from the finish line and is 5.5% at just over 4%. The riders arrive in Mâcon after 183KM and 1,700M of climbing. Depending on how the last few climbs are ridden, the pure sprinters may survive but given how the road stages have gone so far, they will be severely under pressure from other teams that want to thin the field for a reduced sprint. Temperatures were pushing 32C (90F) and with little wind, the real feel was a few degrees higher. After a series of attacks, Jordan Labrosse of Decathlon AG2R, Enzo Leijnse of Picnic-PostNL, Benjamin Thomas of Cofidis, and Thibault Guernalec and Pierre Thierry of Arkéa-B&B Hotels were at the front of the race. With 75KM to go, halfway up the second climb of the day, Col de Fontmartin, they had 50 seconds on three chasers, Tobias Foss of Ineos, and Mathieu Burgaudeau and Mattéo Vercher of TotalEnergies, and 1 minute 30 seconds on the peloton led by Lidl-Trek. The pace in the first 100KM was very fast and with the heat, riders were starting to struggle near the back. At the base of the Col de Boubon with 67KM to go, the chasers were caught but more attacks went off with Alex Baudin of EF-Education EasyPost, Gregor Mühlberger of Movistar, and Tobias Bayer of Alpecin-Deceuninck with Foss able to latch on as well. By the top, Bayer was dropped but the three chasers were 25 seconds behind the five leaders and 35 seconds ahead of the peloton. The Baudin group was brought back with 46.5KM to go as Lidl-Trek continued their pace setting on the front. They kept the gap hovering between 60 and 90 seconds but with the climb of Côte des Quatre Vents approaching, Visma-Lease a Bike, Uno-X Mobility, and Alpecin-Deceuninck started crowding up towards the front. Alpecin-Deceuninck turned up the pace with 3.5KM to climb. The break increased their pace as well but by the top, their gap was just 30 seconds and they were down to four riders as Thierry was dropped. The bunch was under serious pressure but all of the small gaps that were opening were swiftly closed on the descent. Israel-Premier Tech came to the front through Charbonnières with 10KM to go to help in the chase and to consolidate their position at the front of the bunch. The break weren't caught until 2KM to go and even though the roads were not too technical on the run-in, no teams had a line of riders waiting to take on the lead out duties. At 1500M, Alpecin-Deceuninck only had one man in front of Mathieu van der Poel and Lidl-Trek were boxed in further down the bunch. Lidl-Trek found space at 1KM to go and set up their train with three teammates in front of Jonathan Milan. Van der Poel won the fight for Milan's wheel through the final sweeping corner as the speed went higher. Jake Stewart of Israel-Premier Tech got a jump on everyone else just outside of 200M to go. Milan tried to get up to speed but he didn't have the legs and had to sit down, shaking his head, with 20M to go. Stewart took the stage win, his first World Tour win, by a bike length on Axel Laurance of Ineos and Søren Wærenskjold of Uno-X Mobility. Milan was fifth and van der Poel finished in ninth after getting boxed in between the barriers and Milan at 150M.